A few months before he bought Twitter, Elon Musk signaled that under his stewardship the microblogging platform would become a bastion of free speech.
But since buying the company, Twitter has become anything but. In the latest example of Twitter’s heavy-handed censorship last week, a staggering 100,000+ accounts were reportedly either blocked or suspended simply for mentioning an aspiring crypto project, Metatime, as part of a token airdrop campaign.
Twitter is one of the favorite social media platforms of crypto projects, serving as a place to share information and hold discussions with their communities. So the decision to ban over 100,000 accounts simply for retweeting and sharing messages posted by Metatime was a huge shock.
Horrified by Twitter’s latest act of censorship, the crypto community sprung into action, with thousands of people sharing the hashtag #FreeMetaTime to draw attention to what happened and try to get the accounts unblocked.
The #FreeMetaTime campaign was inspired by a tweet from Metatime CEO Yusuf Sevim, who appealed to Musk personally to intervene and get the locked, banned and suspended accounts back to their rightful owners.
In his Tweet, Sevim explained that Metatime is a “freedom project” that has already brought hope to more than 350,000 supporters globally since its launch just six months ago. He explained how the MetaAirdrop campaign gives those people a chance to earn free MetatimeCoin ($MTC) tokens by sharing their ideas and support for the project.
“Unfortunately, today, Twitter accounts of more than 100,000 users (some of them following
@MetatimeCom and our other Metatime ecosystem accounts and most of them are at least 5 years old), were locked, banned, or suspended without any justified reason,” Sevim said. “Overnight, the voices of thousands of people sharing the hope of Metatime and MetaAirdrop were attempted to be silenced. Notably, this calamity struck the very morning after the day we announced our listing on the stock exchange on 26.06.2023.”
Sevim said the decision to ban so many accounts isn’t just a problem for Metatime, but for everyone who uses Twitter and social media platforms. He said it raises serious questions about who determines what the boundaries of freedom of thought and expression are.
“@ElonMusk, I reach out to you as a powerful businessperson, innovator, and thought leader. We ask you to defend our thoughts, our voice, and our community's right to stand together and express our ideas freely,” Sevim said. “What is being done to Metatime today might have been done to you in the past, and could be done to any free-thinking individual tomorrow.”
Hello @ElonMusk, with great hope and warm regards,Metatime is a freedom project powered by Blockchain technology that, in just a short 6 months, has brought hope to more than 350,000 people worldwide, helping them forge their freedoms and futures. With MetaAirdrop, tens of…
— Yusuf Sevim (@Yusuf_Metatime) June 15, 2023Sadly for Metatime, Sevim’s tweet and a follow up post have both gone unanswered and it’s believed that many thousands of accounts still remain inaccessible to their users. Though it’s undoubtedly true that Musk is an extremely busy man and may not have seen Sevim’s tweet, his inaction stands at odds with public statements from him and Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino.
In a recent memo to employees after taking up her role as CEO, Yaccarino stated that a healthy civilization needs an "unfiltered exchange of information and open dialogue about the things that matter most to us." She added that, “You should have the freedom to speak your mind. We all should.”
There’s no reason to disbelieve Yaccarino’s comment, but what happened to Metatime clearly demonstrates that Twitter still has a lot of work to do if it’s too live up to those promises.
In the meantime, Metatime’s co-founder Hys Sahin stated that the project will keep up the pressure on Musk and Twitter until every single blocked account is restored to its user:
A heartfelt thank you to all who stood by our fellow members with suddenly blocked Twitter accounts. Your support, shown through "Free Metatime" posts, is truly remarkable,” Sahin said. “Together, we'll continue supporting one another until every account is unblocked. Thank you for being an incredible community!”
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
